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In addition to GEH, I also hang out on a few aviation related forums - mostly FlyerTalk.com.

Airplanes can and do land in crosswinds all the time. It's believed that the Lufthansa flight landing in Hamburg had crosswinds of 25 knots, then a 70 knot gust hit just as the wheels were a few feet above the ground. The laws of physics state clearly that the wing pointing towards the wind is going to lift in this situation. Conversely, the opposite wing has to go down.

From what I can tell, the pilot was mad to try and land in such conditions, And only in todays paper did I find out that the wing actually clipped the ground. That could have been a pretty bad situtation.

The latest news from the incident is that it was the 24 year old female co-pilot who flew the plane at landing and not the captain according to the german Bundesstelle fŘr Flugunfalluntersuchung (Federal Flight accident department).

But the captain took over when it allmost crashed and he started up the plane again.

Now they are investigating why the captain did allow the co-pilot to land the plane.

The plane had 131 passengers on board and came from Munich. No one were hurt but many were in shock.

From what I can tell, the pilot was mad to try and land in such conditions,

The conditions weren't actually the problem, they should have used another runway. They got clearance for the 23, which has a "completed landing system"* and the captain acknowledged. Due to the weather conditions (storm with 11 Beaufort) and the wind direction he should have changed to the 33 (almost towards the wind). This is under investigation too.

However, the best pilots are always on the ground. We weren't in the cockpit to judge them. But my respect to the crew to keep that bird almost undamaged in the air and finally landed it safely.

*maybe McMaster can explain that better

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